The present invention relates to a grass collector for use with a grass mower adapted to move grass cuttings from a mower through a duct into a grass container disposed at a rear portion of a vehicle body. The invention relates also to a grass mower having this grass collector.
A grass collector for a grass mower is known from e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,015,406. In this, a duct extending from a mower is connected to a support frame attached to a rear portion of a vehicle body, and a grass container having an open front face is supported to the support frame to be vertically pivotable by a manual operation so that the grass container can be pivotally switched over between a grass discharging posture where the front face of the container is away from the support frame and downwardly open and a grass collecting posture where the front face of the container is connected to the support frame to be communicated with the duct. In this document, when a control lever vertically slidably mounted on the top surface of the grass container is slid downward, a lower end of this control lever comes into engagement with a lock element provided on the support frame, thereby to lock the grass container to the grass collecting posture. When the control lever is pulled up, the lower end of the lever is removed from the locking portion, thereby to allow a pivotal movement of the grass container. Then, by pivoting the control lever under this lock released condition, the grass container can be pivoted to the grass discharging posture.
A further construction is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,476,668. In this case, when a hook-like lock member provided in a grass container is urgedly engaged with an engaging member provided in a support frame, the glass container is fixedly connected or locked under its grass collecting posture. When a control lever provided to an upper portion of the grass container is operated upward, the lock member is removed from the lock member to allow a pivotal movement of the grass container. Under this lock released condition, the grass container can be pivoted to a grass discharging posture.
The grass collector needs to be detached occasionally from the support frame for cleaning or storage of the grass container. In this regard, with the above-described conventional grass collectors, for such detachment of the grass container, it is necessary to disassemble the pivot portion of the container relative to the support frame. Hence, the detaching operation of the grass container is difficult.